Russia reschedules Soyuz launch after failure to blast off

The rocket had been due to take off from Russia's Baiknonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

Russian space agency Roscosmos has delayed the launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo ship by two days after Sunday's planned lift-off was aborted at the last minute.

"During the launch, an order was made for the engines to be automatically turned off, the causes are being clarified," a Roscosmos statement said.

"The launch is rescheduled for the reserve date of February 13."

The supply freighter, known as Progress 69, was mounted atop a Soyuz2.1a which had been scheduled to lift off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the aim of reaching the International Space Station (ISS) in a record three-and-a-half hours.

Earlier, a source in the Russian space agency told news agency Interfax that the launch may have failed due to a computer failure in the control system.